Personal Narrative: Trouble In High School

Thinking back to third grade, I can recall constantly getting in trouble in class. I was not a bad child and my classmates even considered me to be a teacher’s pet, but I could never get on this particular teacher’s good side. Every day, I would go home and my mother would ask me “How was your day?” I would tell her about what I learned, what we did as a class, and what I got in trouble for that day. On one instance, my best friend turned around in her desk to tell me a joke and I laughed. I got in trouble, but she did not. As usual, I told my mother about this when I went home. The next day at school, the teacher called me into the hallway while the class was busy. She yelled at me to stop telling my mother what goes on in class because she would tell the principle and get her in trouble. When I went home that day, I told my mother about this as well. The school held parent-teacher meetings that Friday.

As I grew older, I began to understand. I was black, but the teacher and my best friend were white. When I grew old enough, my mother explained to me her part in this situation. She told me that every day I came home and told her I got in trouble for something that was not fair, she would come to the school and talk to the principle. At the parent-teacher meeting, she asked my teacher why I was constantly in trouble. The teacher could not come up with a good explanation, so my mother told her “My daughter doesn’t understand racism and you aren’t going to be the one to teach it to her.” Since then, I have been determined not to let people who want me to fail stand in my way. I know that the sad reality of our world is that this is extremely common. I could choose to use this an excuse to not try hard at the things I want in life. Instead, I choose to recognize that this is only a small hurdle if I work hard enough. So I have set my goals and once I reach them, I hope to change the world’s outlook on people of